Coalition's Green Army passes the Senate

The Coalition's Green Army bill has passed the Senate with bi-partisan support and the Government says the first round of projects will roll out "soon".

The Green Army will grow to be 15,000 strong over the next four years and will start off with 2,500 participants.

Green Army applicants must be aged between 17 and 24, and the Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the intake will represent a diverse range of people, including school leavers, gap year students, graduates and job seekers.

"This is about taking teams of 10 - a coordinator plus nine - they might do a boardwalk, they might do a large mangrove rehabilitation program, to assist with Landcare groups and friends groups, in sorts of work that they otherwise might not be able to do," he said.

"What we are doing in terms of the project specifications is ensuring that these are additional works over and above what's already occurring," he said.

"So it's the sort of thing where you might have a group which is engaged in revegetation or rehabilitation but there are steps which they simply can't do. They don't have the horsepower to deliver those projects."

The Government has defined the scheme as a 'training' program, rather than an 'employment' one.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert has spoken out strongly against the Green Army bill and expressed concerns that participants won't receive adequate, ongoing training or 'workers' rights.

"The Green Army bill appears to be little more than a clean-up program devised to keep youth off unemployment benefits for a brief period of time, with no thought to what happens to them afterwards," Senator Siewert said.

"It is very likely to entrench young people in unemployment and poverty while diverting energy and resources away from more effective environmental programs.

"The bill devalues the work of those who have in fact been trained for and pursued careers in environmental protection.

"There is no guarantee that this will be any more effective or less degrading than the previous incarnations of this program, such as Green Corps or Work for the Dole."

But Minister Hunt says such fears are unnecessary.

"We're paying young people more than they received on average under Green Corp, under Green Jobs Corp, under Newstart or under Youth Allowance," he said.

"It's an average wage of between $600 and almost $1000 over the course of a fortnight, depending on your age and your educational attainments.

"But it's not just the funding. It comes with the training and so that promise of training I think is very, very important.

Some participants will gain the opportunity to earn a certificate I, or certificate II in horticulture or land management.

The Department has already received about 400 project proposals and is currently considering them. Service Providers will soon be engaged to recruit participants for Green Army teams.

Local councils, community groups and natural resource management organisations will work with Service Providers to implement projects.

The Government has committed $525 million over four years to the scheme, after cutting almost $500 million from Landcare.